With the constant development of networks (3G, video services, and the like), enterprises and operators have higher requirements for bandwidth. This means that a switch needs to bear a larger switching capacity. Therefore, high-speed and high-density output has become a development trend of core switches.
A switch with high-density ports provides higher bandwidths by adding the number of ports, for example, one board is configured with 48 ports, 96 ports, or 192 ports. In addition, a switch with high-speed ports provides higher bandwidths by increasing transmission rates of ports. At present, a 10G port is gradually increased to 40G/100G, so that the unit port transmission rate is increased by 4/10 times. Because a 10G switching port is being in transition to a 40G/100G switch in the field, a 10G/40G switch (that is, a switch supporting transmission rates of both 10G and 40G) and a 10G/100G switch (that is, a switch supporting transmission rates of both 10G and 100G) appear.
Switches using the foregoing two types of ports generally adopt the form that a physical port includes N (N≧2) channels (abbreviated as 1-to-N form). For example, a QSFP (quad small form-factor pluggable) includes four channels, and a CXP (12× eXtended-capability pluggable form-factor) includes 12 channels; if one channel of a port needs to be connected, each of the channels may be led out from this port by using a 1-to-N connector to connect the channel. However, with regard to switches in the 1-to-N form, if the connection state of each of the channels of each port needs to be displayed, a great number of indicators are needed and a limited panel space may be occupied.